Tuesday, 2 May 2017

I've made my Burda of the month project from the March issue, but I am currently unmaking it, because frankly it's a big fat failure. Ah well, they all can't turn out amazing and it's only fabric and a bit of time after all.

I made the palazzo trousers 3/2017 #115, which for a change the photo in the magazine made it obvious just how wide legged these pants are:

I really don't know what I was thinking making these pants - I know that pleats at the waist line add bulk to my already bottom heavy figure so that should have been an automatic no. I also know that after so many years of wearing slim leg pants that I'm still not that comfortable wearing wider or even straight leg pants - I am yet to wear these white pin stripe wide leg pants I made last November out of the house!

But I've seen some really great examples of wide leg pants in the stores and on other people, and since I've never been able to make a properly fitting pair of slim leg pants I thought I would take a chance. The fabric I used is a lightweight wool crepe in a gorgeous rust colour that was given to me from a sewing friend at my local ASG group recently. I thought it would have enough drape for those pleats to sit nicely at the front, but those pleats are so deep that they are quite bulky:

There is an invisible zipper in the side seam and pockets which only add to the bulk but suit this style of pants:

And even though these are the widest pant legs ever, I still have drag lines at the back leg! Clearly adding extra width to the legs isn't the fitting solution I need to make to my pants.

Overall, I think this is bit too much of a look for me to pull off - the extra wide legs plus all those pleats is just too much for me and as someone commented on my IG that the pants are wearing me instead of the other way around!

I do like the colour and the fabric, and luckily there is so much fabric to work with that I will be able to easily refashion these into a slimmer leg style. As I mentioned I'm already in the process of unpicking the seams and hopefully I can turn these into something wearable.

But if you like this style of pants or want to try it out for yourself, the pattern itself is fine. It comes together quite easily because it has a side zip instead of a fly front which I find is the longest step in pants making, and all the notches and pattern pieces line up properly as per Burda's usual good drafting.

So I hope you've had a good laugh at my silliness in making this pattern because I am certainly am. The irony is that there were several other lovely patterns in this issue that I could have made and been really happy with, but where's the fun in not taking any style chances?